After a torrid weekend for some and a happy one for others, week 7 of the Barclays Premier League wrapped up this past Sunday. For the Dutchmen it was and overall successful outing with two wins, a draw, and a loss overall. Its been nothing but improvement for all the players these past few matchdays, and the Dutch players are no doubt in better spirits now than following week 5 or 6. Tim Krul, Daryl Janmaat, Daley Blind, Robin van Persie, Patrick van Aanholt, and Leroy Fer all featured for their respective sides, and Vurnon Anita, Ron Vlaar, Erik Pieters, Michel Vorm and Dwight Tiendali all once again failed to make appearances for their clubs.

On Saturday, Patrick van Aanholt’s Sunderland finally got their first win of the 14/15 season- a 3-1 home victory over Stoke City. Van Aanholt played a crucial role in attaining all three points as he shrugged off the anonymity that he played with the past few matches. Arguably the defensive man-of-the-match, van Aanholt shut down any and all attacks that tried to go down the left flank. Completely neutralizing Marko Arnautovic and making multiple crucial tackles and interceptions, van Aanholt terrorized Swansea for the better part of 90 minutes. Over in Wales, Newcastle added to their tally of stalemates with a 2-2 draw at Swansea City. Tim Krul finally had himself a decent game, and despite conceding two made three fantastic saves to salvage a point for the Canaries. It took him seven matches, but Krul finally looked like a player who deserves a national team call up. Janmaat on the other hand has seemed to stagnate in averageness. He posted up a decent defensive performance but was once again at fault for one of his sides conceded goals when he failed to close down Wayne Routledge. Despite that he didn’t make a glaring error to send Routledge free, but an Oranje call up does not look like its in Janmaat’s future at the moment.

Sunday’s matches kicked off with fallen giants Manchester United hosting even further falling Everton. The Red Devils recorded a 2-1 victory over the Toffees, and Daley Blind once again had a great match. A good defensive performance and excellent distribution from the former Ajax man kept the middle of the pitch running quietly and efficiently, with threats neutralized and the ball put back into Manchester United’s play. Robin van Persie in the meantime hit a small snag, and played substandard next to Falcao. Seemingly unable to play at the level expected of him when surrounded by four players who all wants goals as much or more than him, van Persie doesn’t seem to be fitting in the current Manchester United system. This is surprising, as former national and current club coach Louis van Gaal knows how van Persie operates and what style of play would maximize his strengths. Finally, Leroy Fer’s QPR wrapped up the weekend of matches with a 2-0 loss to West Ham. Fer was anonymous the entire match, and did almost nothing to try and salvage at least a point for his club. Despite recording a 94% pass success rate during the match, Fer played not only worse than his own but worse than his club’s standards. Likely, this is just a bump in the road and Fer will go back to his standard good play.

Once again, performances from the Premier League’s Dutchmen are overall steadily getting better. Guus Hiddink no longer needs to cringe when thinking of selecting players from the English top flight. However there is still plenty of improvement to be made, and the Oranje hopefuls have shown in recent weeks that they are capable of it.